Im sure that you will agree that we owe a great debt to the early photographers that captured life on the Goldfields that no written version of events could possibly portray. Not only the family photographs of the people but a record of important events, public figures, building and even just the landscapes of this vast region. Im sure that many of these pioneer photographers took many photograps on their own accord and not because they were paid to do so. There were a number of early photographers some of which you may have already heard of such as Joseph Dwyer, but there were many others who never the less operated for a number of years and left behind an irreplaceable legacy such as Roy Millar. I have been fortunate to have been contacted by Julia Robinson who has kindly given me permission to share with you her family’s story. She has taken on the huge task of trying to gather together a collection of the Roy Millar images. Should you have one in your own collection Im sure she would be happy to hear from you.
The Pioneer Photographer
Published by: Julia Robinson-White on 17 March 2020
www.dustandglare.home.blog
Russian Jack with his wheelbarrow. Roy Millar (State Library of Western Australia Collection)
William Roy Millar (1848 – 1942) – On the wall of the study in my childhood home there was a black and white photographic print showing a man with a bushy beard pushing a wooden wheelbarrow. He always seemed a friendly chap, an adventurous pioneering relative perhaps. (see above).
We had other black-and-white photos on the walls of our house and I never queried who he was or why he was there.
As I got older and took more interest in photos and stories about my family tree, I learned that this man was indeed a “pioneer” but he was not a relative of mine. My connection to this image was to the man who took the photograph.
So, I would like to tell you the story of the “Pioneer Photographer”, my great-great grandfather, William Roy Millar. Known as Roy – and Gramp to his grandchildren. My Nanna, Dulcie Elizabeth Roy Millar, was a great one for sharing stories about our family and she had very fond memories of her Gramp. She described him as ‘a real Gentleman’ with ‘a good sense of humour’, ‘We all loved our Gramp’, she said.
As I scour the internet for facts, documents and other photos that might narrate the life of William Roy Millar, I reflect that maybe it is the recollections of his granddaughter, passed on to her own granddaughter, that might be the most meaningful to him. Here are some other facts and stories I have uncovered about Roy (it turns out he was quite an adventurous fellow).
William Roy Millar (Roy) was born on 27 March 1848 in Cannanore (Now the Kannur district in the state of Kerala) in India to Major General John Millar, of the Madras Infantry, and Maria Millar (nee Robinson). Roy was the fourth born, and youngest son, of John and Maria. Their six children (Margaret Caldom, John Charles, George Tomkyns, William Roy, Mary Elizabeth and Annie Penelope) were all born in India during John’s service with the East India Company (later the British Indian Army).
Perhaps Roy developed his sense of adventure as a young boy in India. My Nanna’s story was that he also spent some time in France at school. He certainly didn’t seem to mind travelling to remote places later in his life. John Millar was of Scottish descent, born in Liverpool (his father was a Scottish merchant). Maria, Roy’s mother was English, born and raised in Yorkshire.
Roy spent time in Scotland as a young teenager. His family is listed in the 1861 Scottish Census as residing in St Andrews, Fife. Roy was 13 years old at the time and listed as a scholar, along with all his siblings. His father retired from the Army in December 1861. Presumably, the family did not return to India after this. Another story from my Nanna was that Roy’s family had intended that he join the clergy and, not liking this idea much, he decided to emigrate. So, on 26 August 1868, when Roy was 20, he embarked from Liverpool, England, on board the ship the Donald Mckay. He arrived in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 November 1868.
Life in Australia
On arrival in 1868, Roy had an uncle, James Haig Millar (1801-1882), already living in Victoria with his wife Penelope. Roy’s older sister, Margaret Caldom Millar (1842-1882), may also have also been in Australia by this time, working as an art teacher in Melbourne. In the 1860s, Victoria experienced an economic boom, fuelled by gold and wool, and was known across the globe as “the working man’s paradise”. Workers’ wages were some of the highest in the world due to a huge labour shortage in the state.
We know that Roy travelled to Albury (New South Wales), as it is here he married Matilda Boyd (1853-1901) on 8 April 1874. On their marriage certificate, Roy lists his usual place of residence as Melbourne. Matilda lists hers as Chiltern (Regional Victoria).
William and Matilda’s wedding certificate
The newlyweds must have settled near Wangaratta which is where the first of their six children, Annie Penelope Maria Millar, was born in 1874. Then came James Haig Roy (1876 in Rutherglen – 1903), Blanche Blythe (1878 in Geelong, lived only 9 months), Reginald Blythe Roy (1879 in Geelong – 1938), Ernest George Blythe (1884 in Chiltern – 1967) and Leonard Blythe (1886 in Hawthorn, lived to 1 year). With his work as a photographer (and possibly due to his keen sense of adventure), Roy and his family moved around quite a lot. Over his lifetime in Australia, he is recorded residing at addresses in Tasmania, Wangaratta (Vic), Rutherglen (Vic), Geelong (Vic), Queenscliffe (Vic), Ballarat (Vic), Chiltern (Vic), Hawthorn (Vic), Coolgardie (WA), Kalgoorlie (WA), Leonora (WA) and Ashfield (NSW).
An Itinerant Photographer
Roy’s career as a photographer (based on photographs that exist in public collections today and records of his occupation in electoral rolls or business directories of the day) spans from the 1870s to 1910s and encompasses the states of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and WA.
Not much is known about Roy’s home life in Victoria in the 1870s-80s. Roy and Matilda experienced the death of two of their children at a very young age, and I imagine this would have caused great distress for the family. Presumably, Roy also travelled for work without his family at times and this must have been hard on them also. What I do know is that family and family heritage were very important to Roy.
Passing on his own family traditions, he gave each of his children middle names that paid homage to his ancestors. ‘Roy’ was his great-grandmother’s maiden name and ‘Haig’ was his grandmother’s maiden name (both on his father’s side). ‘Blythe’ was from his mother’s side, the maiden name of his grandmother (his mother’s mother). Many of his grandchildren also received these family names (on his insistence according to my Nanna) and other family names such as Annie, Penelope, Maria, James, George and Leonard were all chosen in respect to either his or his wife’s close relatives.
Roy’s sister, Margaret died in Melbourne in August 1882, followed by his uncle James just one month later in September 1882. Roy was living in Queenscliffe at the time. Neither Margaret nor James had children (Margaret was unmarried and James was married with no children) and Roy was listed as Executor and Beneficiary in both wills. In 1893, on the death of his father, William Roy printed a death notice –
The Argus, Melbourne, Victoria. Saturday 30 September 1893, page 1.
On the 15th (August), at Bagnere de Bignorre, France, Major-General J Millar, aged 87 years, late of 33rd and 42nd Regiments, Madras Native Infantry, beloved father of W Roy Millar, Fairmount Park, Hawthorn.
By the late 1880s, Roy was living and working in Hawthorn, Melbourne. On the mount of one of his photographs from this time is the address 6 Myrtle Street (possibly his business and home address). Both the State Libraries of Tasmania and South Australia hold images taken locally by William Roy Millar dated 1870-1889.
The Wild West
Most significantly for me and my family, Roy’s work brought him to Western Australia in 1894 – to the gold mining town of Coolgardie. According to this news article at the time, his trip west was at the request of some photographer colleagues from Melbourne, Charles Greenham and Laura Evans, who had recently established their business in Perth.
Coolgardie Miner 25 August 1894, page 5 – W. Roy Millar, working in conjunction with Messrs Greenham and Evans, the well-known photographers of Perth, has commenced operations on the field, and has already taken a large batch of interesting subjects.
and this a few weeks later…
Coolgardie Miner 10 October 1894, page 2 – Since his arrival on the field a few weeks back, Mr Roy Millar… has got together a very fine collection of typical goldfield pictures. They embrace bush, mine, town, track and figure subjects, and convey a better idea of Coolgardie and its surroundings and customs than anything of the kind we have yet seen.
Newspaper Advert November 1894
Coolgardie in 1894 was not much more than a tent city, having only been established two years earlier when gold was discovered in the area. Sydney Smith gives a description of Bayley’s Reward (Coolgardie) to The Argus newspaper on his return to Melbourne from a tour of Goldfield’s sites,
“roughing it in the fullest sense of the term in the wilds of Western Australia”
They have sheep in the township now and one can always get fresh mutton, although the sheep gradually waste away on the water. Their existence is practically a slow starvation and they kill them to save their lives. Then we had rice, preserved apples, and jam – all sorts of tinned things. The usual dress consists of a singlet pretty well open down to the waist, moleskin trousers, blucher boots, and either a slouch hat or a straw one. For dress purposes, a Crimean shirt is added. The chief drawback is the impossibility of washing one’s clothes, as water often averages from a shilling to eighteenpence a gallon, and even then can’t always be depended on… What makes this worse is the system of working [gold mining]… It is all done by dry blowing, which consists in slowly pouring a dishful of stuff from about the height of the shoulder into another dish on the ground, thus allowing the wind, which is nearly always blowing a gale, to blow the lighter particles away. The whole place is practically one vast dustbin, and there is nearly always a thick fog, caused by thousands of people carrying on this dry-blowing process.
Coolgardie in 1894 (State Library of Western Australia)
Sydney’s description paints quite the picture of life on the goldfields when Roy first arrived. It would have been a time of living rough, lack of fresh water and fresh food and insufficient medical attention or supplies if you were unlucky to fall sick. The prosperity of the mines in Coolgardie meant that conditions were rapidly improving, however. The town grew so quickly that by 1896 it had its own railway station and, by 1898, it had become Western Australia’s third-largest town after Perth and Fremantle.
Coolgardie, c.1896, Roy Millar (State Library of Western Australia Collection)
Coolgardie boasted sixty shops, twenty-six hotels (with sixteen on Bayley Street), four clubs, three breweries, seven newspapers, six banks, two stock exchanges, twenty-five stockbrokers, four schools, two theatres, many churches, a mosque, a synagogue, a racecourse and, regrettably, two cemeteries with over 1,100 graves with the average age of the deceased as 25yrs. With the rest of Australia experiencing a depression during the early 1890s, Roy must have taken this opportunity to establish a new life for his family in Western Australia. Roy’s wife, Matilda, and their children followed him to Coolgardie and by the late 1890s he had expanded his photography business across several towns in the Goldfields.
Bayley Street, Coolgardie, c.1898 State Library of Western Australia Collection)
In an advertisement in the Sun Newspaper in 1899, Roy claims to be the “Pioneer Photographer” with studios based in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie.
Roy’s photographic images, published in many of the local newspapers of the day, tell the reality of life on the Goldfields in the 1890s. Roy himself was present at the opening ceremonies of railways stations, tramways and public swimming pools, attended the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and the festivities around Australia’s Federation, sporting events such as racing and athletics carnivals, balls, church services, protests and funerals – even the aftermath of fires that damaged the townships on a semi-regular basis.
He captured streetscapes, landscapes, buildings and mining equipment and many of the people working and living on the Goldfields; miners and prospectors, teamsters and cameleers, clergymen, politicians, policemen, nurses, football teams, families and school children. He also photographed Aboriginal and Muslim groups present in the community.
I am grateful to the digital archives we have today that allow me to look at Roy’s photographs published in newspapers over 120 years ago. There are too many to share here, but a couple of my favourites capture typical scenes of Roy’s world in the Western Australian Goldfields at the turn of the Century.
Collecting everlastings near Leonora, ca.1901, Roy Millar (State Library of Western Australia Collection)
Camel rider and bicycle, Coolgardie c.1895 W. Roy Millar (National Gallery of Australia Collection)
A New Century
1900 was a happy year for the family, with Roy’s eldest child, Annie Penelope Maria Millar, marrying Charles Wright in Boulder in April 1900. One year later, on 4 May 1901, tragedy befell the family however when Matilda died suddenly from a burst appendix at the age of 48. The family were living on Brookman Street in Kalgoorlie at the time and Matilda was buried in Kalgoorlie Cemetery.
The family must have been quite devastated by this event. Roy continued to acknowledge the anniversary of her death with a poem extract by Alfred Lord Tennyson in the local newspaper for several years. By 1903, Roy was living with his eldest son, James, in Leonora. Both men are listed as photographers in the Electoral Roll of this year. Another son, Reginald (Reg), was also working as a photographer in Sir Samuel, a nearby town. Unfortunately, this year saw another family tragedy, the shock death of James.
Grave of Reg and James Millar Leonora Cemetery – Photo Danelle Warnock
Kalgoorlie Western Argus 12 April 1904, p 25 – Profound regret was expressed in Leonora on the receipt of the news of the death of Mr James Haig Roy Millar, at Kookynie on September 16. The deceased was widely known and extremely well-liked on all the northern goldfields. He and his father (Mr Roy Millar) were the first photographers in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The deceased was particularly well known in Leonora, where he only recently resided, and a sad feature of his death is found in the fact that he was shortly to be married to a young lady in Leonora.
About a fortnight prior to death, Mr. Millar was forced to seek the aid of Dr Miskin (Kookynie) who subsequently diagnosticated his ailment as diphtheria and acute nephritis, to which he succumbed on the 16th at the age of 27. The body was conveyed by train to Leonora on Thursday night, and the funeral was arranged to start from Mr Semken’s at 11 a.m. on Friday, but as the father had to return to Kookynie to attend his son Reg. (who is also dangerously ill with the same complaint as that from which his brother died) the time was altered to 9am, consequently, a large number of friends were denied the privilege of paying their last respects to deceased. A large number of pedestrians attended the cemetery from the Gwalia. The service was conducted by Rev. Moulton, assisted by Rev. Flemming, who both had known the deceased for a long time. The sympathy of everyone is extended to the father, who only recently buried his wife.
Perhaps as a respite from his difficult few years, Roy travelled to Busselton, Western Australia in 1904 and a series of his photos from this trip were published in the Kalgoorlie Western Argus Newspaper. By 1906, Reginald had established a stationers/newsagency in Leonora and Roy was operating the photography business from the same premises. They must have both been doing quite well as, in 1907, Roy acquired some land on Fremantle Road in West Perth (which he owned until at least 1915) and the two of them also funded Ernest, Roy’s youngest son, to travel to California, USA to study Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
In 1908, at the age of 29, Reg married Mabel Lucy Lethlean (May) in Boulder, Western Australia.
Sunday Times 19 July 1908, page 6 – Goldfields Gossip – Reg. Millar, son of Roy Millar, photographer, of Leonora, got married, here t’other day. Think I knew Reg 14 years ago when he was a boy in Knickerbockers, in old Coolgardie. Reg is now in business with his dad at Leonora. The Town Band and all his friends are organising a great “welcome back” to Reg and his blushing bride.
According to my Nanna, Roy basically moved in with Reg and May on their wedding day. He lived at the back of the Leonora newsagency shop, but he would come to their place for all his meals. Roy found great happiness in his grandchildren. He had 13 born between 1903 and 1918. For those living in Leonora, he was clearly very dear to them and involved in their lives. My Nanna recalled how he would take her to the pictures (movies) about twice a year, which was a real treat, and how her Gramp had told her
‘One day you won’t have to leave your lounge room to watch the pictures’.
He also had a prized Edison gramophone that he would play for her when she visited his place. The Millar family of Leonora were considered quite well off during this time. Roy and Reg had set up a second newsagency shop in Gwalia and, in 1911, Reg also applied for a Mining Lease at “The North Gwalia”. In this year also Ernest, having returned from university, married his childhood girlfriend, Louisa Elizabeth Barelli (Lil) in Victoria where he was now living. Perhaps Roy attended the wedding.
Millar Family Leonora c1916 with May (nee Lethlean) seated left, Reginald (standing), William Roy (seated right) Children Herbert Reginald (baby), John Blythe, James and Minnie
Retirement
Roy retired from photography around 1916. From this year he is registered as a ‘newsagent’ on all Electoral Rolls. My Nanna said he lost sight in one eye whilst chopping wood so perhaps this happened about that time and impacted his ability to work as a photographer. At any rate, in 1916 he was aged 68, a good age for retirement. According to my Nanna, Roy went blind in his other eye in his 80s, caused by cataracts. Such a shame for a man who had relied on his eyesight for his living.
Gwalia Ghost Town & Museum – A fire at the Sons of Gwalia mine in 1921 shut the mine down for three years (the population halved in both Gwalia and Leonora), and caused a major financial downturn and population loss in the Leonora area. Despite this, the Millar family remained relatively well off and, in 1928, Roy and Reg bought a station outside Leonora, introducing sheep. ‘Desdemona’ was about 14kms from Leonora – it was the nearest station to the town – and Reg’s family relocated there in about 1929, also keeping their Leonora residence and the Leonora and Gwalia newsagency businesses.
Unfortunately, in the 1930s their luck changed. These were the years of the Great Depression and the financial hardships (the price of wool), combined with a seven-year drought that withered the land and livestock and Reg’s declining health (he had very severe lung problems), took its toll on the family and ‘knocked the bottom out from us’, as my Nanna put it.
Roy with granddaughter Minnie at Desdemona Station
Roy, who had still been living in Leonora, went to live at Desdemona Station when Reg became very sick. Here, he had his own outhouse which was separate from the main house. He called this his ‘camp’ – it was ‘Gramp’s Camp’.
My Nanna was in her teens by then and had many fond memories of her Gramp living with them at the station. Every Sunday, she said, he would saddle up their horse and sulky and take the grandchildren out for the day, making roads on the property. He always had a mattock (pickaxe) with him.
Roy must have been very active even in his later years. My Nanna recounted that in his 80’s, he had bought himself a pushbike so he could learn how to ride. He had fallen off, hurt his ankle and was laid up for weeks! Another time she said he climbed up on the roof of his ‘camp’ to put up wire netting for a creeper to grow on – he was about 85 years old!
Sadly, on 28 October 1938, Roy’s son Reg died at ‘Desdemona’.
Death notice, The West Australian, Friday 27 October 1939 – Mr Reginald Blythe. Millar, J.P., chairman of the Leonora Road Board for the past 13 years, passed away at his station home, Desdemona, on Friday afternoon. The late Mr Millar, who was about 59 years of age, came to the goldfields in the early days and, with his father, Mr Roy Millar carried on the business of photographers in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie for some years. About 30 years ago he and his father, who is still in good health at 91 years, arrived in Leonora, where the station property known as Desdemona, nine miles from town, was acquired. The late Mr Millar was actively concerned with public affairs throughout his long association with the district and will be much missed.
Reg was buried in the Leonora Cemetery with his brother James. The Station and newsagency business continued to be called ‘Roy Millar & Son’ and was run by Reg’s family until his wife, May, sold them both in the early 1940s during WWII (for much less than they were worth, according to my Nanna).
When Reg died, Roy went to live in Perth with his daughter, Annie (in Mount Lawley). He was 92 years old, nearly blind and quite deaf. Sadly in 1941, Annie also died suddenly, and Roy moved yet again to Sydney, New South Wales to live with the last of his living children, Ernest (in Ashfield). He never returned to the Goldfields.
After a life full of adventures, across three continents, and having been witness to many extraordinary places, people and events, William Roy Millar passed away on 9 April 1942 and a notice of his death was printed by Ernest’s family in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 1942, page 10 – MILLAR – At a private hospital, Ashfield, William Roy, son of the late General Millar and dear father of Ernest B. Millar, 159 Victoria Street, Ashfield, and grandfather of Dr Millar (Roy), Ernest, and Lily, aged 94 years. Roy was buried at Rookwood Cemetery, New South Wales.
William Roy Millar (1848 – 1942)
Portrait photo of Roy taken in his 90’s
Inscription reads;
“To Bettie, from her affect.
Grandfather Perth Xmas 1939 W Roy Millar.
NOTE: The following is a link to the page on the Outback Family History website on Goldfields photographers – if you know of any I have missed do let me know – research@outbackfamilyhistory.com.au
Moya Sharp
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Always a pleasure to read these stories on a Sunday. Thank you.🙏